Download this eye opening article by clicking here
For years we have heard the term "kids at risk" to label children who are seemingly heading off the derech, turning their backs on their families, their institutions of higher learning and the mesorah that they were raised with.
But an enlightening and timely must read article in this past week edition of Mishpacha Magazine discussing an insidious and pervasive problem that seems to plague many of today's youth: boys and girls who outwardly conform to society's standards of frumkeit, but inwardly are completely disconnected from Yiddishkeit.
The article discusses the sudden surge of children who externally appear to be frum, yet in private have an apparent lack of emunah and yiras shomayim, picking and choosing their mitzvos, deciding to be michalel Shabbos, eat items of questionable kashrus or not to put on Tefillin.
What is the cause of this sudden decline in our precious children?
"Every inappropriate billboard and secular entertainment show shouts to our children: 'Leis din v'leis dayan'- live life as you please! You cannot even visit a pharmacy today without being exposed to the moral corruption. This has unfortunately cost us heavily in the areas of emunah and yiras Shamayim."
- Rabbi Dovid Sapirman
"Almost without exception, when a bochur will tell me or another mentor that he inexplicably has 'no cheishek' for Torah and Yiddishkeit, we'll later discover that he has become addicted to inappropriate images.'
-An Experienced Mentor
"In the past, people who committed aveiros didn't necessarily lose their entire cheishek for Yiddishkeit. Due to the very nature of these nisyonos, however, one who falls prey to them can lose his entire interest in Yiddishkeit. I've seen fine, stable bochurim, who have finished masechtos in Shas and have encountered the wrong material, even for a short period of time, crying like babies at how their Yiddishkeit now hangs on a thread. The age at which children can access such material is incredibly young. The speed is also mind-boggling.... With the proliferation of the Internet, sophisticated cell phones, DVDs, and iPods, one can still live an outwardly ehrliche lifestyle and have the most deplorable material in his pocket or stashed in his drawer or on his home computer. Children can easily hide what they're doing from their parents. The elements of pride and shame that used to protect us from material unacceptable in our society have practically disappeared."
-Rabbi Drew, who founded the Technology Awareness Group